CURRENT EVENTS

“One Belt, One Road,” China’s $1 trillion infrastructure initiative, is a massive undertaking of highways, pipelines, transmission lines, ports, power stations, fiber optics, and railroads connecting China to Central Asia, Europe and Africa. According to Dan Slane, a former advisor in President Trump’s transition team, “It is the largest infrastructure project initiated by one nation in the history of the world and is designed to enable China to become the dominant economic power in the world.” In a January 29th article titled “Trump’s Plan a Recipe for Failure, Former Infrastructure Advisor Says,” he added, “If we don’t get our act together very soon, we should all be brushing up on our Mandarin.”

The plan was announced three years ago, during the Obama administration, when Pentagon officials declared: “In front of Russian aggression, the United States is considering the deployment of ground-based missiles in Europe” (the manifesto, 9 June 2015).

Now, with the Trump administration, the plan is officially confirmed. In the 2018 fiscal year the Congress of the United States authorized the financing of “a program of research and development of a ground-based mobile Cruise missile”. It is a nuclear missile with an intermediate range (between 500 and 5500 km), similar to the 112 Cruise nuclear missiles deployed by the US in Comiso in the 1980s.

They were eliminated, along with the Pershing 2 ballistic missiles deployed by the US in Germany and the Soviet SS-20 deployed in the USSR, by the Treaty on Intermediate Nuclear Forces (INF), stipulated in 1987. It prohibits the deployment of ground-based missiles with a range between 500 and 5500 km.

The truth of the hoax indictment is available, but it is not reported by the MSM. This website has reported the facts about the indictment as has Moon of Alabama and David Stockman. Even Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in his press conference announcing Mueller’s indictment of 13 Russians told us part of the truth when he said at the 5 minute, 22 second mark that

“there is no allegation in this indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity. There is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election.”

Rosenstein goes on to say that the suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a trial, which, of course, will not take place as the indicted charges are make-believe and the US has no jurisdiction over the indicted Russians.

Is this the way the presstitutes and politicians are reporting it?

Webmaster's Commentary:

Absoflippinglutely unbelievable, but perfectly predictable from the Democratic Party, which, over a year after the election, still cannot possibly believe that it lost the 2016 election with their baggage-ridden candidate, so have to have SOMEONE to blame!

Fort Shafter faces a huge challenge in updating evacuation plans for American civilians in South Korea should war break out on the peninsula, experts say.

Asia expert Ralph Cossa said estimates of the number of Americans in Seoul on any given day run in the 200,000-to-300,000 range, if not more.

Any evacuation would be "extremely daunting, and likely to cause chaos, even if air assets are available, but especially if they are not," said Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum in Honolulu, a subsidiary of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Adm. Harry Harris, head of U.S. Pacific Command on Oahu, revealed at a Feb. 14 House Armed Services Committee hearing that Gen. Robert Brown, commander of U.S. Army Pacific at Fort Shafter, and his staff had been tasked with creating an updated "noncombatant evacuation operations" plan, or NEO, for South Korea

Webmaster's Commentary:

It is not a question of "if" this war will happen; it is now more a question of "when", since this study has been greenlit about two weeks ago.

LAST WEDNESDAY, the U.S. military did something it had not done before, inviting a sizable delegation of local leaders to a secretive $110 million drone base it’s building in Niger. The Nigerien group was led by the governor of the Agadez region, and the visit was the first for many members of the group, which included religious leaders, civil society members, and a handful of journalists, according to a report by a local radio station, Studio Kalangou.

Webmaster's Commentary:

This is a point of US power projection in African, and the capability of blowing up who, or what, the US military wants to destroy here with impunity.

US special envoy on North Korea Joseph Yun, an advocate of direct diplomacy with the reclusive nation since 2016 has informed the State Department of his intention to retire on Friday.

Though he didn’t offer a specific statement on this sudden decision, it came immediately after President Trump’s most recent comments spurning direct talks with North Korea without massive preconditions.

Though North Korea has expressed willingness to talk, the White House has made clear that they will only talk if they are guaranteed that total nuclear disarmament of North Korea results before the talks themselves begin.

Webmaster's Commentary:

I can certainly understand why Yun did this; he must be catastrophically disappointed in Trump, and in the Trump Administration's hard line on North Korea, which most probably means that Trump is getting ready to greenlight a military action against it.

Remember: demonization of a country, plus placing harsh sanctions against it (as the Trump Administration did last week) is nearly always a prelude to war.

Speaking of which, also at antiwar.com, comes the following article, linked from wapo.com:

President Donald Trump again attacked beleaguered Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Wednesday, this time for not ordering the Justice Department to investigate the agency’s use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in its Russia probe.

A 30-year-old Tennessee man has been indicted on 13 criminal counts after allegedly “bragging” about raping a 5-year-old girl in a number of disturbing Facebook posts, PEOPLE confirms.
Brian Gann has been in police custody since Oct. 11, 2017, when the Roane County Sheriff’s Office dispatch center was flooded with calls about the alleged Facebook posts, according to a news release issued Monday.

President Donald Trump’s approval rating is now higher than former President Barack Obama’s at this point in his presidency, according to the results of a daily poll released Tuesday.
As of Tuesday, 50 percent of likely voters in the United States approved of Trump’s job performance, according to the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll. On this date during year two of Obama’s first term, 43 percent of likely voters approved of how the president was performing, the same poll found.

A bipartisan effort by four senators is looking to end the US military’s involvement in the Saudi-led war in Yemen, with the introduction of the first ever War Powers Act vote to come out of the Senate.

Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Rand Paul (R-KY), Mike Lee (R-UT), and Chris Murphy (D-CT) are forwarding the bill, which notes that Congress has never authorized the use of military force in Yemen. This should allow Congress to oblige the administration to end US involvement in the war.

The US has participated in the Saudi invasion of Yemen since it began in 2015, with US planes performing mid-air refueling missions for Saudi bombers, and US warships at times participating in the Saudi-led naval blockade which is causing mass starvation in Yemen.

Webmaster's Commentary:

This move is morally correct, as the US government and military have been colluding with Saudi Arabia in war crimes in Yemen, through participation in the blockade and providing aerial refueling of Saudi bombers,supporting the bombing runs which have led to the massive, indescriminate killing of innocents, including women, children, infants, and the medically fragile elderly. And now, we have massive cases of cholera and diptheria ravaging the land.

But as morally correct as it may be, the passage of such legislation may prove quixotic in the extreme, for several reasons.

First, the Butcher of Yemen, AKA the Saudi Prince Salman, hates the fact that the Houthi rebels are Shia, and believes that they are getting extensive assistance from Iran (which, BTW, can hardly be proven at this point, other than for a few Iranian advisors).

Iran is considered by Saudi Arabian royalty and government to be its existential threat in the region.

So, the plan is, pound the Yemeni people down to extinction, through the genocidal campaign Saudi Arabia is currently waging against it, then go after Iran militarily. This was reported at globalresearch.ca on 13 February of this year:

The basic plan is to invade and control Lebanon, destroying Iran's ally Hezbullah; destabilizing and regime changing Damascus; then attacking Iran, with US and Israeli military help.

Of course, there is one tiny bit of of the calculus which Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the US haven't quite factored into their plans, and that is the current Russian presence in Syria, and the Russian promise it has consistently made to Iran to defend it if it should ever be invaded.

And THAT... is the thousand pound gorilla, sleeping splayed over the grand piano, which is going going to make such coming wars.... interesting, if not globally devastating.

Intellihub Founder and Director Shepard Ambellas appeared on Crowdsource the Truth with Jason Goodman Tuesday night where the two talked about the 1 October massacre and new details which Ambellas already uncovered during his 45-day on-the-ground investigation.

A federal judge on Monday halted California’s plan to require Monsanto to place warning labels on its Roundup products, saying scientists haven’t shown a clear connection between glyphosate and cancer.

The shooting at a Florida high school earlier this month that left 17 dead reportedly could have been much worse had the shooter’s gun not jammed, leading him to discard the firearm and flee the scene.

Father Of Florida Shooting Survivor Admits He Altered Email From CNN
The father of a Florida shooting survivor who accused CNN of wanting him to ask a “scripted” question during a town hall on gun rights last week admitted to altering the contents of an email he received from a producer working on the show.

Dick's Sporting Goods Inc., one of the largest retailers of its kind in the United States, is taking new steps to curtail the sale of firearms, including ending sales of assault-style rifles and banning the sale of guns to people younger than 21, the company announced this morning.

In an interview with The Arizona Republic House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said she had a better solution than The Wall to monitor and safeguard the U.S.-Mexico border. Pelosi proposed "mowing the grass" and more fences as a border security solution. She called it a "more serious structure."

"I'm not the wall's biggest advocate in Congress," Pelosi said to congressional reporter Ron Hansen. "But I do know that representatives in the House and Senators in that body from the border areas have some serious objections to to a wall because they know how detrimental it can be to the community trade, to all the other aspects of a border."

Webmaster's Commentary:

I would say that this woman has gone stark-raving, barking dog mad, except for understanding the logic of Democrats wanting unrestricted immigration.

The members of Congress who champion illegal immigrants, believe that when they are able to vote, they will only vote Democratic, in order to keep a lock on the Presidency and Congress.

In fact, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, of Chicago, has gone one better than this on his Democratic brothers and sisters;

A Texas sheriff issued a letter to his deputies clarifying something that probably never should have needed clarification in the first place.

Denton County Sheriff Tracy Murphree sent a letter to fellow law enforcement that took an indirect but obvious shot at deputies in Parkland, Florida. Reports have indicated that four of Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel’s deputies stayed outside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, hiding behind their vehicles while 17 students were being murdered.

Murphree’s letter made it quite clear – that’s not how we act.

“All commissioned Deputies, if you respond to an active shooter you are expected to take immediate action,” the Texas sheriff wrote, sighting the Florida shooting incident. “We do not stage and wait for SWAT, we do not take cover in a parking lot, and we do not wait for another agency.”

The liberals down at MSNBC have launched an attack against former Trump campaign advisor Roger Stone, calling him out for exchanging direct messages on Twitter with the controversial organization Wikileaks.

Eleven people fell ill, including several marines, and three were taken to the hospital after a letter containing an unknown substance was opened in an administrative office at Joint Base Meyer-Henderson Hall building 29 in Ft. Meyer, Virginia. The hospitalized employees are listed in stable condition, while the remaining victims have been decontaminated by a hazardous materials team.

Barely seven months ago, a senior Chinese official promised that artificial intelligence could one day help authorities spot crime before it happens.

In the country's far western Xinjiang region, it's already happening, with the establishment of a system that critics call "Orwellian" in scope and ambition, and which is being used to place people in political re-education.

Called the Integrated Joint Operations Platform, or IJOP, it assembles and parses data from facial-recognition cameras, WiFi internet sniffers, licence-plate cameras, police checkpoints, banking records and police reports made on mobile apps from home visits, a new report from Human Rights Watch finds.

Webmaster's Commentary:

I have to ask myself; is the Unhinged Surveilled State of America quite so far from using this kind of AI?!?

Power companies contracted by the US government to restore power to the island of Puerto Rico are already pulling their workers off the island, despite the roughly 300,000 Puerto Rican customers still without electricity as a result of Hurricane Maria.

Google’s artificial intelligence technology may sometimes seem like it’s reading our mind, but neuroscientists at Canada’s University of Toronto Scarborough are literally using A.I. for that very purpose — by reconstructing images based on brain perception using data gathered by electroencephalography (EEG).

In a test, subjects were hooked up to EEG brainwave-reading equipment and shown images of faces. While this happened, their brain activity was recorded and then analyzed using machine learning algorithms. Impressively, the researchers were able to use this information to digitally re-create the face image stored in the person’s mind. Unlike basic shapes, being able to re-create faces involves a high level of fine-grained visual detail, showcasing a high level of sophistication for the technology.

Webmaster's Commentary:

I see opportunities for both positive use of this technology, but also abuse; its use must be carefully monitored, and laws surrounding its use need to be carefully constructed.

SOUTH Africa’s parliament has voted in favour of a motion that will begin the process of amending the country’s Constitution to allow for the confiscation of white-owned land without compensation.
The motion was brought by Julius Malema, leader of the radical Marxist opposition party the Economic Freedom Fighters, and passed overwhelmingly by 241 votes to 83 against. The only parties who did not support the motion were the Democratic Alliance, Freedom Front Plus, Cope and the African Christian Democratic Party.

What company gets the most money from the U.S. government? The answer: the weapons maker Lockheed Martin. As the Washington Post recently reported, of its $51 billion in sales in 2017, Lockheed took in $35.2 billion from the government, or close to what the Trump administration is proposing for the 2019 State Department budget. And which company is in second place when it comes to raking in the taxpayer dollars? The answer: Boeing with a mere $26.5 billion. And mind you, that’s before the good times even truly begin to roll, as TomDispatch regular and weapons industry expert William Hartung makes clear today in a deep dive into the (ir)realities of the Pentagon budget. When it comes to the Department of Defense, though, perhaps we should retire the term “budget” altogether, given its connotation of restraint. Can’t we find another word entirely? Like the Pentagon cornucopia?

Webmaster's Commentary:

I very much disagree with the following statement, except for the issue of economic inequality, which is a pervasive problem:

Forgive me, but what has he actually done to diminish women's rights, racial justice, and LGBR rights?!? Can we have some documentation here, please?!?

And the issue of immigration is a no-brainer; this country cannot afford to take care of illegal immigrants who are singularly incapable of taking care of themselves, because they have no skills,and do not speak English: it is just that simple.

That beings said, I too am very concerned about the trajectory of both domestic and foreign policy of this administration.

Domestically, I am seeing the advent of a real chill in the free speech, granted to American citizens by the First Amendent; I am seeing coming restrictions in the right to bear arms, by perfectly law-abiding citizens; and Big Brother haunting all of our conversations with inventions like Siri. and other computer driven "household helpers". I am seeing the 4th Amendment being eviscerated, with traffic stops for no legal reason, if the person is driving responsibly, with compulsatory blood draws for alcohol, even when the person has not been drinking.

Internationally, I am personally terrified of President Trump's Foreign policies.

Mike and I live on a first-strike target, if China decides to assist North Korea in a war against the US; the reason is, that all the military communication to locations further East in the world run through the island of Oahu.

Right now, it appears that the Trump Administration's foreign policy can be summed up in two words, and those words are, "OR ELSE!!", screamed, collectively at countries the US governmnent has decided to villify, and against which they have placed sanctions, like North Korea, Russia, Iran, and China.

It is a dead moral certainty that demonization, plus sanctions, are generally preludes to wars.

President Trump understands that the US military is not really prepared to fight such wars at this point in time; but the unrestrained, military spending to which he has opened the floodgates right now, is not the answer either.

The entire culture of the military/industrial complex has to change, and quickly. There seems to be a belief, at the top levels of these corporations, that it is just fine to deliver equipment which absolutely doesn't perform as advertised (I give you.... Lockheed Martin's F-35, which still, after so many years and bugs, cannot deliver as promised); is delivered so late as to be obsolete upon delivery; and to run up cost overruns in production so intense that they could wake the dead.

But of course, the big reason the corporate bigwigs believe this continues to be OK, is the huge donations they make to both parties, to get the best mlitary spending "bang" from whichever candidate actually gets "elected" by the American people.

Federal law should either exempt weapons manufacturers from being able to contribute to Presidential campaigns, or there should be a clause in all military contracts, that if products do not operate as advertised; or are late in delivery; or have had massive cost over-runs, someone in those companies needs to go to jail for having defrauded the American taxpayer, who has ultimately paid for those weapons.

That only needs to happen a few times, before the military industrial complex gets the message.

Right now, Russian and Chinese weapons makers are delivering some outstanding products, as we have seen in Russia's campaign in Syria; Russia and China are getting much more bang for their defense and weaponry spending than is the US; it is time to change that.

In the American police state, police have a tendency to shoot first and ask questions later.

In fact, police don’t usually need much incentive to shoot and kill members of the public.

Police have shot and killed Americans of all ages—many of them unarmed—for standing a certain way, or moving a certain way, or holding something—anything—that police could misinterpret to be a gun, or igniting some trigger-centric fear in a police officer’s mind that has nothing to do with an actual threat to their safety.

So when police in Florida had to deal with a 19-year-old embarking on a shooting rampage inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., what did they do?

But as students spread into the streets on Friday to protest violence, guns, and President Trump, some of them started resorting to violence, according to NBC News. Police reported incidents of students throwing rocks at police cars and civilian vehicles.

A video of the new Spot Mini robot from Boston Dynamics is striking fear in the minds of those who understand how quickly the latest and greatest inventions can turn into our worst nightmares. In the video, the robot can be seen standing in front of a door. Around 12 seconds later, another Spot Mini known as the Big Dog comes around the corner, sporting a robotic claw on its head. The first Spot Mini moves backward, allowing the robotic dog enough space to open the door so the Spot Mini can enter the next room.

Cleveland, Ohio – Graphic Body Camera footage has been released that shows police officers forcing a mentally ill woman to remove her clothes, and then violently slamming her to the ground, covering her face with pepper spray, and forcing her to answer a series of questions before giving her medical aid.

The video was released by Cuyahoga County after a judge granted a request submitted by Cleveland.com. The evidence details an incident that took place in May 2016, after officers arrested a woman for a nonviolent offense, and a municipal court judge ordered that she be held in jail until a mental health evaluation could be conducted.

In order to conduct the evaluation, a female guard ordered the woman to go into her cell and take off her clothes. When she did not comply, the guard called for backup, and Corporal Brendan Johnson arrived.

Webmaster's Commentary:

One has to wonder just how intense the psycological evals are for the Cleveland PD, that men who could do this could ever get possibly get hired.

Did they all actually have mothers?!? Or were they perhaps cloned in a lab of an offspring of Josef Mengele?!?

IF this is how Cleveland cops interpret "to protect and serve", residents of this city should vote with their feet, and get the hell out of Dodge. Destroy the city's tax base en masse,as moving out of the cityh is perfectly legal for people to do... at least, at the moment.

Conventions, do NOT book Cleveland as your venue, as you may get sued for setting your convention in a place which could be very hazardous to attendees' health, both mental and physical.

The bill passed today 388-25 by the U.S. House of Representatives marks an unprecedented push towards Internet censorship, and does nothing to fight sex traffickers.

H.R. 1865, the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA), allows for private lawsuits and criminal prosecutions against Internet platforms and websites, based on the actions of their users. Facing huge new liabilities, the law will undoubtedly lead to platforms policing more user speech.

The Internet we know today is possible only because of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which prevents online platforms from being held liable for their users’ speech, except in certain circumstances. FOSTA would punch a major hole in Section 230, enabling lawsuits and prosecutions against online platforms—including ones that aren’t even aware that sex trafficking is taking place.

Webmaster's Commentary:

Looks like the only way to communicate henceforward, with all these punitive laws which will punish the innocent, and not really take care of the guilty, is with a couple of cans and a string, or sign language in a very darkened room!!

Antifa is an anarchist group backed by George Soros. For the past two years they have been violently “protesting” candidate and then President Donald Trump. They have committed felony assault against Trump supporters and destroyed private and public property worth millions of dollars.

Antifa has now found a new recruiting angle. Apparently regular college kids aren’t violent enough, so they are recruiting and training the mentally ill in Texas to commit violent acts against conservatives.

These criminals should be arrested as seditionists and given lengthy jail terms. This is NOT peaceful protesting. This is war.

Powerful Democrats in both the House and Senate called Tuesday for an investigation into Drug Enforcement Administration-led operations in Mexico that played a role in triggering violent drug cartel attacks. These attacks left dozens, possibly hundreds, of people dead or missing, including many who had nothing to do with the drug trade.

The call was issued in a letter signed by ranking members of the committees that oversee America’s foreign law enforcement operations and draws heavily on two stories last year by ProPublica and National Geographic that documented the attacks and the DEA’s role. One story reconstructed a 2011 massacre by the Zetas cartel in the Mexican state of Coahuila. It revealed that the wave of killings was unleashed after sensitive information obtained during a DEA operation wound up in the hands of cartel leaders, who ordered a wave of retaliation against suspected traitors.

Whenever there is a gun massacre, statists inevitably respond that it’s time to repeal the Second Amendment. The idea is that if the Second Amendment is gone, so will be the right to own guns in the United States. There is just one big problem with that position: It’s wrong. The Second Amendment, like the First Amendment, doesn’t give anyone any rights. Instead, it prohibits the federal government from infringing on rights that are natural and God-given and that preexist government.

Chilling surveillance footage has emerged showing the moment three New York police officers carried a 91-year-old woman through the smoke-filled hallway of a burning building before allegedly dumping her just moments later.

The video shows NYPD Sgt. Timothy Brovakos carrying Ethel Davis out of her Rockaway Beach apartment in Queens with the help of two other officers when they responded to the fire on January 12.

The great-great-grandmother was allegedly abandoned by the officers in a smoke-filled corridor soon after when Brovakos was overcome with smoke and had to be helped to safety by his colleagues.

This video will demonstrate how a bumpstock works when attached to a Semi-Automatic AR-15. This has been in the news quite a bit lately as the United States government holds hearings on whether this gun accessory should be banned.

(*Because they didnt shoot him on sight , or he didn't take his own life , like school shooters usually do ?
Probably worth the read to see how the blaze justifies this constitutional breech of an idea .)